Henry V Characters

Captain Fluellen is a Welsh officer in the English army who is obsessed with military history and deeply proud of his nationality.

A bookworm and a know-it-all, he is not shy about offering his opinions on how war should be conducted, and only respects soldiers whom he considers to have a good enough knowledge of Antiquity’s rule for warfare. A stickler for discipline, he refuses to intervene on behalf of a thief, forces soldiers who are hanging back to join the front lines, and insists that soldiers keep silent at night even when there is no secret as to where they are. He worships King Henry and is very proud of the monarch’s links to Wales. Though at first taken in by Pistol’s convincing portrait of a great soldier, he soon comes to see him for what he truly is; when Pistol spends some time insulting Wales and the Welsh, Fluellen beats him and forces him to eat a leek (the national symbol of Wales).